Ukraine rights group tells top UN body that rape is being used as weapon of war

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations is more and more listening to accounts of rape and sexual violence in Ukraine, a senior U.N. official advised the Safety Council on Monday, as a Ukrainian human rights group accused Russian troops of utilizing rape as a weapon of war.

Kateryna Cherepakha, president of La Strada-Ukraine, mentioned her group’s emergency hotlines had obtained calls accusing Russian troopers of 9 instances of rape, involving 12 girls and women.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” she advised the council through video. “We know and see — and we want you to hear our voices — that violence and rape is used now as a weapon of war by Russian invaders in Ukraine.”

Russia has repeatedly denied attacking civilians since its invasion of Ukraine started on Feb. 24.

The United Nations mentioned final week that U.N. human rights screens had been in search of to confirm allegations of sexual violence by Russian forces, together with gang rape and rapes in entrance of youngsters, and claims Ukrainian forces and civil protection militias had additionally dedicated sexual violence.

Ukraine’s U.N. mission didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon allegations in opposition to Ukraine forces.

“Russia, as we have stated more than once, does not wage war against the civilian population,” Russia’s deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy advised the Safety Council on Monday, accusing Ukraine and allies of “a clear intention to present Russian soldiers as sadists and rapists.”

UN Girls Government Director, Sima Bahous, mentioned that all allegations should by independently investigated to make sure justice and accountability.

“We are increasingly hearing of rape and sexual violence,” she advised the council. “The combination of mass displacement with the large pressure results of conscripts and mercenaries and the brutality displayed against Ukrainian civilians has raised all red flags.”

All sides within the Ukraine war have techniques of conscription, the place younger males are required by legislation to do army service. Ukraine and Russia have accused one another of utilizing mercenaries.

Russia says it is finishing up a “special military operation” to assist independence declarations by separatists in two provinces in japanese Ukraine.

Ukraine’s U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya advised the Safety Council that the Prosecutor Common’s Workplace of Ukraine was “launching a special mechanism of documentation of cases of sexual violence by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women.” — Reuters

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